


Cakeageddon

by not-another-gem (gems_6515)



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Baking, Baking makes Felicity Cry, Birthday Cake, Cake, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Naked Felicity, Oliver saves the day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-11
Updated: 2014-06-11
Packaged: 2018-02-04 06:23:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1768891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gems_6515/pseuds/not-another-gem
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felicity volunteers to bake a cake for Diggle's son's third birthday. But the cake Gods seem to have it in for her and nothing is working out right.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cakeageddon

Felicity sighed in exasperation as she dumped yet another cake in the trash. She couldn’t work out what she was doing wrong. She had baked four cakes this morning, four, and only one of them had turned out. The first cake came out of the oven and looked perfect. It was a beautiful golden colour, still moist; it sprung back when she pressed down on it gently. Have achieved such a fantastic success for the first cake, she had thought the second one would be simple. Baking the cakes was not supposed to be the hard part of this project. She was supposed to whip up the cake batter, throw them in the oven and have the building blocks for her project ready to go. But no. The she had obviously done something to the baking Gods and they now hated her with the fire of a thousand professional chefs’ ovens.

It was Robbie’s 3rd birthday party this afternoon and she was determined to bring a cake that would shock and awe everyone present. When Dig had first mentioned that he and Lyla didn’t have time to make anything so they were going to purchase a plain store cake on the day, Felicity had been indignant.

 ‘Dig, have you, or have you not, enjoyed my baking prowess in this very basement numerous times over the years?’ Felicity asked.

Roy, sweaty and exhausted had been standing on the mats taking a long drink of water, after sparring with Oliver.  At Felicity’s statement Roy had choked on the water, resulting in a stream of water pouring out of his nose, as he coughed and spluttered on the water.

Still coughing Roy took in a deep steading breath ‘Diggle has enjoyed your what prowess in the basement?’

Oliver walked up behind him and clipped him under the backside of his head before stalking off the the bathroom to change. ‘Get you mind out of the gutter Roy. She said baking. As in cakes, and biscuits. Now clean that up. We’re out patrolling in 5.

Diggle couldn’t help but smirk at the exchange. ‘Of course I have Felicity. Lyla and I just didn’t want to put you out. Your presence at our place to celebrate Robbie’s birthday is all we want. It’s only his 3rd birthday. It’s not like he is going to remember what cake we have for him, and he isn’t exactly a cake connoisseur. He will lick the icing off and then end up with more if it smooched over his face then in his mouth.  The cake isn’t a big deal.

Felicity looked at Diggle with exaggerated horror. ‘Cake, Mr Diggle, is always a big deal, ‘Felicity deadpanned.

Roy rolled his eyes behind Felicity’s back to Diggle, as he bent down to wipe up the water on the mats.

‘Leave the cake to me. I will bring a cake that will shock and awe. It will be a masterpiece that would make Da Vinci cry. This cake will be so epic, that it will imprint itself onto Robbie’s mind to not only be remembered for years to come, but will be the standard that he holds all future cakes up to!’

Why the hell didn’t she just say she would bring ‘a’ cake?  She had to go on, and on about what a great cake it would be. All week she had tried to find time to bake the cakes in advance, so she could freeze them and then create a bulldozer cake for Robbie, but she hadn’t had a spare moment until this morning, the party was this afternoon, and she was down to the last of her flour.

Mixing all of the ingredients together for the last cake she would attempt that day, Felicity sent a silent prayer up to the baking powers that be. ‘If this cake turns out I will stop ogling Oliver whenever he is on the salmon ladder. No wait….that would never happen. I will stop _directly_ ogling Oliver on the salmon ladder; because looking at him in the reflection of my computer screens doesn’t really count at all.’

Felicity poured the cake batter into the tin, banged it twice on the bench, and then shoved it in the oven.  ‘Oh please oh please oh please work out’, she muttered to herself.

Felicity surveyed the kitchen. It looked like a bomb had gone off in it. Shaking her head to herself, Felicity thought it would have to wait. She still needed to shower and change. She was pretty sure she had cake batter in her hair, she knew she definitely had some between her toes. Don’t ask her how it got there, she really wasn’t sure.

Felicity ran off to the bathroom, intending on getting in and out before the cake needed to come out of the oven.  Leaving her clothes on her bed, she half ran into the bathroom swinging the room behind her. Felicity winced as the door slammed shut behind her, shutting a little harder than she intended. Throwing her clothes off, she quickly turned the hot water on and jumped in.  She knew she needed to be quick as she wanted to watch the cake.

Felicity showered as quickly as she could, washing her hair with a speed that even surprised herself. Jumping out of the shower, she grabbed her towel wrapping it around her and went to open the bathroom door. It didn’t move. She pulled at the door a bit harder and id still didn’t budge. Felicity grabbed at the door with both arms letting her towel fall to the floor and yanked repeatedly at the door. Nothing. The door was stuck and it wasn’t moving. Felicity stepped back to look at the door in confusion, and a little bit of panic. The door was leaning slightly to one side, and was off balance in its frame. The hinges were on the other side of the door, so she couldn’t even _Ever After_ the door to get out. Felicity grabbed at the door and yanked again over and over again, before kicking it in frustration, and letting out a howl of frustration and pain as her foot collided with the solid object.

She slid down onto the floor leaning her back against the offending door, with her towel crumpled next to her. Tears began to pool in her eyes , and then silently stream down her face. She knew it was irrational. Felicity has been held at syringe point, at sword point, and even taken a bullet; but today, she was undone by cake and a door that wouldn’t open. 

She knew she wasn’t really crying over cake, she wasn’t that naive. She had been operating on next to no sleep lately, which made everything seem exponentially worse. Her actual day job was hard, her night job with the Arrow harder and her personal life probably the hardest of them all. She had been trying harder with her friends lately, finding more time to see them; trying harder to have a personal life outside of her night job. Except the only time she had to find was the precious few hours she slept each week. Felicity had wanted to show herself that the Arrow wasn’t her whole world. She had wanted to show that she could have it all.

So this cake, in a bizarre way was to prove to herself that she could, and the more she failed, the more determined she became. She had wanted to prove to herself that she could do everything, be everyone she needed to be on her own. But sitting there, stuck in the one room in her house without tech, on the floor of her bathroom, with her wet hair lank against her face and back, tears streaming down her face, she couldn’t help but face the truth. She couldn’t do it all, she couldn’t be who everyone wanted her to be, and still have time to be who she wanted.  She had failed.

‘Felicity……………….Felicity?’

Felicity’s head jerked up. She could have sworn she heard someone call her name.

‘Felicity?’

She could hear footsteps on the stairway heading towards her bedroom.

‘Felicity? Are you here?’

‘Oliver? Oliver is that you?

‘Felicity where are you?

‘In here! Oliver! I’m stuck in the bathroom!’

She could hear Oliver enter her bedroom, ‘Oliver! The door is jammed. I can’t get out.’

‘Hold on. It looks like one of the hinges has come loose.’

Felicity stood up and moved away from the door. It was only a few moments later as the door was righted. Oliver opened the door and was met with a damp Felicity throwing herself at him and embracing him in a tight hug. Oliver’s arm automatically wrapped around her as he returned the hug, before he glanced down, and took a deep steadying breath.

‘Umm Felicity...’

‘Yeah.’

‘You’re naked.’

‘Shit!’ Felicity half yelled as she hurled herself backwards towards the bathroom where her towel was lying uselessly on the floor.

Oliver was standing in the middle of Felicity’s bedroom, his clothes damp down the front from her wet body, with his eyes firmly closed.

‘I’m so sorry!’ Felicity began to ramble as she picked up her towel and wrapped it around her, ‘I didn’t mean to throw my naked body as you, I mean I didn’t mean to be naked when I hugged you, and I mean like literally hugged you, not like when you say naked hugging to kids as a euphemism for sex, because I obviously didn’t just have sex with you, coz you wouldn’t have clothes on either if that happened. Not that I don’t want you to have clothes on, no I mean I do want you to have clothes on. I wish I had clothes on. Clothes are good. I like clothes.’

Oliver’s eyes were still firmly shut, but there was also a full blown grin on his face, that crinkles in the corner of his eyes.

‘Felicity. Breathe. I know what you mean,’ Oliver said with a smile in his voice.  ‘I came around to see if you wanted a lift to Digs and if you needed any help with your Mona Lisa of cakes?’

‘Oh God! The cake!’ Felicity yelled as she started for the stairs still in just her towel.

At this point Oliver opened one eye, as if checking if the coast was clear to properly look, before opening his second eye.

‘You get dressed. I can deal with the cake. What do you need me to do?’

Felicity stopped in her tracks. ‘Oh, umm… there is a skewer on the bench. The cake is in the oven. Poke the skewer in the cake. If it comes out clean the cake is done. Take it out of the oven.’

‘Okay.’

Oliver backed out of Felicity’s room, gently closing the door behind him. Felicity turned around and threw the clothes on she had already laid out before having her shower, and then followed Oliver down the stairs.

The cake was on the bench and it looked perfect. Felicity breathed a sigh of relief.  The kitchen was still a mess, she was pretty sure she still looked like a drowned rat, but at least she had two whole cakes.

‘I know. I know. They don’t look like the ‘Mona Lisa’ of cakes. I meant to have them done earlier in the week. It needs to cool before I can ice it, and I’m not sure if we have time. I just really wanted this to be an amazing cake for Robbie.’ Felicity sighed as she flopped in the bar stool next to the bench. Felicity head fell in her hands. ‘It all just went wrong today.’

Oliver looked at her. ‘You know I’m actually pretty early. We don’t need to leave for a while. If I put the cake near the window it will probably cool quicker. You can go upstairs and do your hair and finish getting ready while it cools. I’m sure there’s still time to finish the cakes. They might not be the ‘Mona Lisa’ of cakes, but everyone knows how busy you have been this week Felicity. Go. Finish getting ready. There is still time.’

Felicity gave Oliver a grateful smile, as she stood up and headed back up the stairs.

30 minutes later Felicity made her way back down the stairs to a kitchen that had been transformed. The benches were sparkling; the dishes from the sink washed and put away, the flour from the floor swept up. And the icing on the cake in her beautiful clean kitchen was that there was literally icing on the cakes.

Oliver looked up from putting the last clean glass in the cupboard. ‘Hey. I hope you don’t mind. It’s just that you seemed a little frazzled. I started cleaning up the kitchen, and then I saw the icing already made in the fridge, and the second cake was cool so I figured I would just put the icing on. I mean I used to help Raisa ice cakes a lot when I was younger.’

‘Hanging out to lick the bowl?’

Oliver gave a half smile, ‘Yep. I know this probably isn’t what you had in mind for the cakes, but I just wanted to help.’

The cakes were simply iced, with the icing just spread over the top of them, not the bulldozer master piece she had imagined, but perfect just the same.

Tears filled Felicity’s eyes, as she smiled and nodded. ‘Thank you. Thank you, for everything.’

She was thanking him for more than just the cakes, they both knew it, but neither of them were quiet ready to acknowledge how much they relied on each other every day.

Grabbing the cakes, they headed off to the Diggles.

Walking into the Diggles yard it looked like any other three year old’s birthday. No-one would guess that half the guests were hero’s by night. Holding a cake each Oliver and Felicity found a place to put them on the table. Roy sided up to them and looked down at the cakes.

‘So these are the cakes hey Felicity…’ began Roy. Oliver caught Roy’s eye and ever so slightly shook his head. ‘…they look amazing.’

‘Just like she does, ‘added Lyla. ‘You always look amazing, and I always mean to tell you.’

Felicity laughed, ‘Trust me, I look an awful lot better than I did an hour ago. Being clothed, and dry does a lot for my appearance.  Oliver can attest to that.’

Roy, Lyla, turned to gape at Oliver and Felicity. Felicity turned bright red. Oliver sighed and shook his head. While Dig turned to Roy to comment, ‘You owe me $20’.

**Author's Note:**

> Howdy. This is inspired by my own current baking angst. It is very random, but I hope you enjoy it regardless.
> 
> I hate reading over what I have written, so this is completely unedited.
> 
> Constructive criticism is welcome! Would love to hear what you think.


End file.
